Not aid, US has to give $9 billion under CSF agreement to Pakistan: Report

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ISLAMABAD: US has to give Pakistan $9 billion on bills pending before US administration on account of the Coalition Support Fund (CSF). Minister for Finance Miftah Ismail confirmed there were pending claims of $9 billion against the US on account of CSF dues.

The US Congressional committee had recently proposed $350 million of the total $700 million for Pakistan but half of amount may not be released till the defense secretary certifies to Congress that Islamabad has taken actions against the Haqqani network.

The Ministry of Finance hopes that Islamabad would be getting Rs15.204 billion on account of reimbursement of CSF amounts from USA as revised estimates in outgoing fiscal year 2017-18 against initial estimates of Rs141.797 billion. The government has estimated that it will get just Rs15.9 billion on account of defence receipts from USA in the budget 2018-19.

After becoming an ally of US-led war against terror, Pakistan and US placed a mechanism for reimbursement of bills amount after launching military offensive against terror networks since 2001.

“In last 17 years, Islamabad received $14 billion from USA on account of CSF amount,” said one top official of Finance Division in background interview and added that over $9 billion claims were still pending before Trump administration.

Under the CSF mechanism, Pakistan claims all such expenditure which were already incurred for mobilisation of troops and launching of offensive against terror networks in tribal and other areas adjacent to Afghanistan and then US reimbursed the amounts after hectic reconciliation.

“Even reconciled amounts has not yet been fully paid back by USA,” said senior official and added that Washington provided peanuts to Pakistan so far on this front.

Another official said that Pakistan had to bear expenses of war on terror after getting borrowings from domestic and foreign lenders keeping in view yawning financing of budget deficit on which the government to borne interest rate which was paid with taxpayers money. There is need to incorporate cost of debt servicing on the claims sent out to USA on CSF, said the official.

On the other hand, Pakistan’s official document Economic Survey for 2017-18 states that during the last 17 years, the direct and indirect cost incurred by Pakistan due to incidents of terrorism amounted to $126.79 billion equivalent to Rs10,762.64 billion.